Understanding Minutes of Angle (MOA) — Intro Video

In this NSSF Video, Ryan Cleckner, a former Sniper Instructor for the 1st Ranger Battalion, defines the term, “Minute of Angle” (MOA) and explains how you can adjust for windage and elevation using 1/4 or 1/8 MOA clicks on your scope. This allows you to sight-in precisely and compensate for bullet drop at various distances.

For starters, Ryan explains that, when talking about angular degrees, a “minute” is simply 1/60th. So a “Minute of Angle” is simply 1/60th of one degree of a central angle, measured either up and down (for elevation) or side to side (for windage). At 100 yards, 1 MOA equals 1.047″ on the target. This is often rounded to one inch for simplicity. Say, for example, you click up 1 MOA. That is roughly 1 inch at 100 yards, or roughly 4 inches at 400 yards, since the target area measured by 1 MOA increases in linear fashion with the distance.

It’s important enough to relate MOA to IPHY for purpose of understanding. Especially since most of our ‘MOA’ scopes aren’t.
But too many generalizations can cause a departure from sound perspective.

For example; if understanding that 1MOA is ‘close enough’ to 1.047 IPHY for ‘our purposes’, then your understanding is off by .47 IPHY for every 10 MOA dialed..
That’s 4.7″ off(from generalizations) at 1kyd, per 10 MOA dialed, and it’s common to need 30+ MOA to zero at 1kyd.